This study brings to an academia table the discussion on whether investment incentives are a motivator or a gift and also explores the moderating effects of Investors" Perceptions on Stock market Performance. By use of key word characters the search initially identified 93 published and unpublished research papers and after a tentative scrutiny, 66 papers were selected in a random sampling manner in order to give the birth to this discussion paper. Exploratory research design was used. The key

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... bjective of this article was to investigate on the question as to whether incentives are a gift or a motivator. The study findings reveal than investor perceptions affects stock market performance more than incentives do. The paper concludes that the availability, adequacy, and timeliness of relevant information about marketable securities are important for both pricing efficiency and market confidence. Investment incentives work well in an ideal world to promote investment while investors" perceptions are relevant in the real world. Hence, stock market incentives were concluded as being a gift and not a motivator for investors to make investment decisions at the stock market.